A heart rate monitor is fundamentally a personal medical monitoring device which keep track of a human heart rate in real time or record his heart rate for later analysis.

How Does A Heart Rate Monitor Work?

A Heart Rate Monitor usually consists of 2 elements, a chest strap transmitter and a wrist receiver. When a human heart beat is detected, the transmitter will transmit a simple radio pulse or unique coded signal to the receiver which will then be used to determine the current heart rate of the person. Examples of such signals could be Bluetooth, ANT, or other low-power radio link.

More advanced models offer the capability of measuring the heart rate variability, activity and breathing rate to assess a person’s fitness as well. Newer models of receiver designs come with more advanced features like built-in speed and distance, amount of calories burned, average heart rate over exercise period, time in a specific heart rate zone, as well as detailed results and logging which can be downloaded into a PC for archiving and analysis.

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